Poetry Circle, July

[Guest ii]

(I thought we'd start this already for next month, also as a test run.)

 

Okay, one of the few poets in English that I could find in here, and also a fairly easy one, I think: Robert Frost.

 

 

The Road Not Taken

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

 

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two reads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

 

 

 

What thoughts did that bring to your mind? What did it make you feel? Was it sad, or happy? What do you think the poem is about? Anything in particular that caught you eye?

[lexiepiper]

I thought maybe he was talking about 2 choices in life, thinking about which path to take and taking the road less travelled. At the end he wonders what it would have been like if he'd taken the other path, but feels the path he chose has turned out to be a good choice so he doesn't think he'll go back.

 

That's just a guess though I know nothing about poetry

[Kylie]

What a terrific first choice! I can't help but join in because The Road Not Taken is one of my favourite poems, and the only one I can quote, almost in entirety, which is quite a feat for me because I generally have a very poor memory for quotes and it has been at least 10 years since I studied this poem in school.

 

This poem always strikes a chord with me because I often stop to reflect on my own life and how I got to be where I am, and where my next choices might lead me. The smallest decision can have such a big impact on your life.

 

I find it to be inherently sad, although I don't know that there's really anything to indicate that it should be. Perhaps it's the thought of the author looking back on his life as he nears the end and pondering his choices. I'm not quite sure if there's an element of regret there ("I shall be telling this with a sigh") and it's not noted whether the difference his choice made was for better or worse.

 

The lines 'Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back' scare me a little because there's such a sense of finality about the decision. There's no going back once you've made your choice.

 

I like the double use of the word 'I' in the last stanza. It seems as though he's reconfirming, or qualifying, his decision to himself, and saying that it was indeed his decision, and he cannot blame/thank anyone else for its ramifications.

 

I love the imagery this poem produces. It's what I love about all of Frost's poem that I've read.

 

Sorry for my disjointed and probably incoherent ramblings. I've been writing snippets of thoughts in between doing work.

[poppy]

I have never found this poem sad.

 

These lines:

 

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

 

I take to mean that often we think that if we don't do something now, we can always do it later, then circumstances change ...but it is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

The over-riding message this poem has always given me is not to follow the crowd, don't be afraid to go your own way, the most popular way is not always the best.

It always reminds me of Paul Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress where he talks about the 'straight and narrow way' leading to life, whereas the 'wide and broad way' leads to destruction.

 

You made some good observations Kylie, I agree about the double 'I', although I didn't notice it until you pointed it out

[Kylie]

It always reminds me of Paul Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress where he talks about the 'straight and narrow way' leading to life, whereas the 'wide and broad way' leads to destruction.

 

Hmm, that's interesting. I haven't read Pilgrim's Progress but to me the phrase 'straight and narrow' sounds much more confining and limiting than 'wide and broad'. In other words, those phrases mean the opposite to me, upon first reading them. Although I understand how they mean what you said, Poppy.

[poppy]

Lol Kylie. Pilgrim's Progress is a religious book, 'the straight and narrow' and 'broad and wide', I'm pretty sure, are biblical references ...I'll have to look it up. But I've always understood 'the straight and narrow' as referring to doing the right thing, which is not always the easiest choice as opposed to 'the broad and wide' which is the way of the world and following your own selfish inclinations. (now it's as clear as mud says Kylie )

[Chimera]

Lovely poem! I have to say I had no intentions of taking part in this circle as I tend to think poetry just isn't for me but... this strikes a chord. And it's much more intelligible than those sonnets we were force to dissecate in school

 

I thought it was a sad poem, or at least the melancholic "what could have been?" type... until I got to the last line. " And that has made all the difference." To me, this line turns the mood around: the poet is telling us that this choice of a path has shaped who he is/ what he now is doing and that it is (at least that's how I hear it), a good thing. Yes this past choice was difficult and sometimes he wonders if the other woudn't have been easier/ better. But at the end of the day, the one he took is the right one, because it took him where he is, and none other would have...

 

Actually, I thought that last line also felt different when reading it... I'm not sure how to explain it, or what techniques if any are involved, but it doesn't really seem to fit in with the rest: it's more blunt, less poetic. Nearly as if it had been added there later/ by someone else. In fact it's as if the poet has just snapped out of his melancholic mood and returned to the reality of his current situation.

 

"The end justifies the means", or the place he got to justifies the path he blindly chose to get there... It's warped logic of course, but in this case it makes perfect sense.

[Chrissy]

I love that the poem can run through as one, without the need for separate verses, it's rhythm carries you through.

 

I felt it was an autumnal poem for an author in his middle years, the 'yellow wood', description I would associate with autumn leaves. It has a personal and reflective quality that reinforces that feeling.

 

I don't detect sadness, just wise acknowledgement at how we are rarely able to return to the time and place where a choice has been made in order to try a alternative. Once on our paths, life and time take us elsewhere.

 

He chose the less travelled path, 'Because it was grassy and wanted wear'. Although he later suggests that there is little difference between the two roads it implies he prefers to a least attempt neither to be predictable nor a follower.

 

The last verse talks of a sigh, 'Somewhere ages and ages hence:', so he is not at the absolute end of his life, but rather contemplating how he will view his decision in the future.

[Nollaig]

I've always felt he was telling it right after he made the choice, and was reflecting on how in old age he should remember this moment as perhaps a significant one in leading him to wherever he ends up, or no more significant at all than any other crossroads in his life. To me the whole poem has always been about the immediate contemplation after a decision about whether it will be an influential one, or not, or how you'll even ever know, because most of us won't ever go back to take the other road.

[jewell]

I really enjoyed this poem. I like thinking about this myself. Sometimes i can sit thinking about the past, some of the bad things that have happened because of a choice i made, and i think about the embarrasing moments, when i wish i hadn't been such a fool. But then i think about my blessings, and that changing any of the bad parts of my life (taking a different path for example), might change the good precious memories and moments, it might change what i'm grateful for today. I also try to evolve as a person, and what i have had the priviledge of learning, might be lost.

 

It also reminded me of a John Lennon song: Beautiful Boy. When he said 'Life is what happens when your busy making other plans.'

[Kell]

The thing that jumps initially to my mind is that it's about accepting the outcomes of the choices we make in life, and about being true to yourself, rather than just following the example/path of others. I find it quite a hopeful and positive poem.

[Chrissy]

I find it quite a hopeful and positive poem.

I felt that it was a positive poem too. There didn't appear to be regret, rather an acknowlegement that once a decision is made we can go forward.

 

I like the implication of inevitability in the lines, that allows the reader to say "What is done, is done". We do make choices in life, and these choices lead us elsewhere. The message is to make the best choices you can, but not to dwell too long on them, neither at the time of deciding, nor later.